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Author: Brady-Smith, Christy
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Brady-Smith, Christy
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Waldfogel, Jane
Fauth, Rebecca
Work or Welfare? Assessing the Impacts of Recent Employment and Policy Changes on Very Young Children
Evaluation and Program Planning 24,4 (November 2001): 409-425
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Child Care; Children; Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); Education; Family Circumstances, Changes in; Maternal Employment; Mothers, Income; Welfare

We explore the implications of the rapid influx of low-income mothers into the workforce and PRWORA work requirements during the middle to late 1990s for the well-being of young children. Our premise is that some families with young children will be better off, while others will be worse off than low-income cohorts from a decade ago. We focus on six policy provisions from the 1990s that are likely to influence the well-being of young, low-income children in the coming decades: (a) work requirements for mothers of young children; (b) education requirements for teenage mothers of young children; (c) child care subsidies; (d) child care regulations; (e) family leave; and (f) the Earned Income Tax Credit. For each of these provisions, we discuss the actual policy as well as the implementation (i.e. practice) of the policy at the state level. We then consider what policy-relevant research has to say about the possible impact of early maternal employment, income, and child care on young children, highlighting research on low-income families where possible. Much of the research we review is based on data collected prior to the rapid changes in the proportion of low-income mothers in the workforce and in state and federal requirements and programs that occurred in the mid-1990s. Thus, we conclude with speculations on how the current trends in workforce participation and welfare and other policies may impact young children in the coming decades.
Bibliography Citation
Brady-Smith, Christy, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Jane Waldfogel and Rebecca Fauth. "Work or Welfare? Assessing the Impacts of Recent Employment and Policy Changes on Very Young Children." Evaluation and Program Planning 24,4 (November 2001): 409-425.
2. Brady-Smith, Christy
Hofferth, Sandra L.
Patterns of Early Maternal Employment and Child Outcomes: An Analysis of Children from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics
Presented: Washington, DC, Population Associaton of America Annual Meeting, March 2001
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Children, Academic Development; Children, Behavioral Development; Cognitive Development; Maternal Employment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We examine associations between maternal employment patterns in the first 3 years of life and child outcomes at age 3 to 5 using data from the 1997 Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement (N = 465). Associations are examined separately for non-Hispanic white and African American children. For non-Hispanic white children, maternal employment that began in the 1st year of the child's life and continued through the 2nd or 3rd year (early entry) was negatively associated with verbal achievement, but not with math achievement or behavior problems. For African American children, early entry was not directly associated with child outcomes. Analyses examined work intensity and child, family, parenting, and home environment characteristics as moderators of these associations. Findings are discussed in terms of their congruence with past research conducted with the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and relevance to current U.S. policy.
Bibliography Citation
Brady-Smith, Christy and Sandra L. Hofferth. "Patterns of Early Maternal Employment and Child Outcomes: An Analysis of Children from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics." Presented: Washington, DC, Population Associaton of America Annual Meeting, March 2001.